Ferretería EPA C.A. is a Venezuelan hardware retail chain with a wide range of product categories including electrical products, plumbing and masonry. Its targets are businesses and individual consumers. It currently has 16 stores in different cities around Venezuela.

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The Problem

In the past, Ferretería EPA C.A. attended to customer inquiries via website chat and WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging apps in Venezuela. Each agent used their own WhatsApp number, so it was difficult to monitor conversations and collaborate as a team.

Primarily, it needed a WhatsApp solution for multiple users. This would help the agents identify customers, collaborate with each other, provide more effective customer service and potentially increase sales.

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The Respond.io Solution

After comparing it with other solutions, Ferreteria EPA C.A. decided to choose respond.io for several reasons: Ease of use, competitive pricing, its omnichannel inbox and automation builder. With the help of respond.io, the following solutions were implemented.

WhatsApp API and Website Chat were Connected to an Omnichannel Inbox

When compared to website chat, messaging apps like WhatsApp have more benefits for customer communication. Yet, website chat is a universal way of contacting a business that doesn’t require customers to install any app.

Due to the growing popularity of online commerce, it was important for Ferretería EPA C.A. to meet the needs of its increasing online customers through website chat and WhatsApp by enabling more agents to handle conversations.

The respond.io team recommended 360dialog as a WhatsApp partner for the activation and management of a WhatsApp Business API account. Ferreteria EPA C.A. has now access to a WhatsApp API account for multiple users for a flat fee.

Shortly after, website chat was connected too. Customer conversations are centralized on a single platform by connecting WhatsApp Business API and Website Chat to respond.io. Now conversations are easier to supervise and agents can collaborate in difficult cases.

Pre Chat Surveys were Implemented to Reduce Agent Workload

WhatsApp conversations allow businesses to capture leads automatically as they can save a customer’s phone number. Although website chat is often anonymous, you can overcome this limitation with respond.io.

Ferretería EPA C.A. added a respond.io website chat widget to its website. To optimize resolution times, it decided to include a pre-chat survey that collects key customer data before starting a conversation with an agent. Since there’s no need for so many questions, it saves time for both agents and customers.

Automation was built to Handle Inbound Conversations

Currently, Ferreteria EPA C.A. has 11 customer-facing agents attending to customers through respond.io. These agents are multi-functional and are responsible for answering inquiries as well as registering purchases.

Ferreteria EPA C.A. implemented a respond.io Workflow automation for inbound conversations to identify conversation purposes. Customers are presented with an interactive menu of inquiry or purchase options and are directed to an available agent.

Catalogs are Distributed en Masse via WhatsApp

WhatsApp API Broadcast presents a great opportunity for companies like Ferretería EPA, which has an extensive product catalog. Now, its catalog is not only found in its physical stores but is also sent as a PDF via WhatsApp.

While the WhatsApp Business App is very limiting when it comes to mass messaging, WhatsApp Business API allows business to message thousands of users at once. This, coupled with respond.io's targeting and segmentation capabilities, make it an effective remarketing tool.

Customer Satisfaction is Assessed with CSAT Surveys

Ferretería EPA C.A. has an average of 19,000 messages per month (inbound and outbound) over WhatsApp and web chat. That's a large number of customer interactions, and also a great opportunity to measure how satisfied customers are with its service.

Using respond.io Workflows, Ferretería EPA C.A. sends customers a CSAT survey after their interactions with its agents. Thanks to this, Ferretería EPA C.A. is able to identify its strengths and areas for improvement.

“We were looking for an easy-to-configure tool that could consolidate our different communications channels. Respond.io and 360dialog offered a better proposition than the other solutions, with quick and easy onboarding. In addition, we like the way respond.io has developed over time. They have taken into account proposals from the entire community and implemented them, creating a truly excellent tool.” - Oriana Sanchez, Systems Manager for Ferretería Epa C.A.

“Thus far we have connected seven companies to respond.io including ours. In our particular case, we use respond.io for our support center. We regard respond.io as a smart solution with an easy-to-integrate API, which allows joining multiple messaging channels under a single platform, and building Workflows without programming. Respond.io propels our clients’ businesses, adding value to every customer-company interaction.” – Jose Cruz, Business Development Manager for Intelix Synergy C.A.

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The Results

Switching to respond.io brought Ferretería EPA C.A. positive results. For a start, WhatsApp multi-agent access was a game-changer, as now all agents work under the same WhatsApp number, instead of using one phone number per agent.

But respond.io benefited the company in other aspects. Contact data enrichment, promotional messages and customer satisfaction were improved with pre-chat surveys, WhatsApp broadcasts and CSAT surveys, respectively.

During its time as a respond.io client, Ferretería EPA C.A. increased its number of monthly conversations by 80%. Because conversations are handled efficiently with Workflows, customer base and sales conversions have both grown by 20%.

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